Put a moratorium on wind turbines
Kokomo Tribune | July 11, 2013 | kokomotribune.com
The commissioners said they wanted to develop eastern Howard County. Maybe the vast expanse of fields seems undeveloped, but it’s prime farmland. Crops and livestock are what this land does best.
Family farms are incorporated businesses, some quite large, dealing in hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. Their products are cash crops, and with heavy subsidies, bring in a good income to Howard County and its tax base. Turning prime farmland into industry will harm this valuable resource.
Where family farms are subsidized, family homes aren’t. We who’ll be forced to live among turbines will pay more insurance due to greater risk of known damage from turbines and lose property value. Reports nationwide confirm homes don’t sell where turbines are located. Some will need to leave their homes due to health and safety with no compensation. Yet we’re told we must suffer for the common good.
What benefit to our county for our loss? Is wind energy a thriving business? Our county’s “investment” will create six jobs! Construction isn’t local. Not one yard of concrete came from Tipton’s IMI. The U.S. Department of Energy map shows Indiana marginal for wind! Turbines create power at double to triple the cost of conventional power. Wind farms exist only from huge subsidies. Each turbine costs thousands annually to maintain. Our country is trillions of dollars in debt. Subsidies will run out. What happens then? The proposed wind farm will pay no taxes to Howard County for 10 years. Power is sold to Michigan. Profit is reaped by E.ON.
Field damage from construction of wind farms reduces crops. Nationwide studies prove harm to livestock. Depletion of income from farm products will hurt Howard County and its tax base. Widespread damage to field tiles, plus disruption of water flow by multiple huge bases, will cause considerable flooding. Our roads will be destroyed. It cost millions over years to achieve what we have. Howard County will pay an exorbitant sum to restore this.
Since citizens weren’t notified for input during the years this was being planned, a moratorium is needed for more thorough thought. If this is a good venture, it’ll wait until we understand the long-term effects in Tipton.
Leelia Cornell
Greentown
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/07/11/put-a-moratorium-on-wind-turbines/